As if by magic, Thing 10 actually dealt directly with the sentiments expressed in my previous blog entry (I didn't sneak a peek ahead, honest, guv!). So, yes, social bookmarking sites can be used, and indeed already are being used, by institutions such as libraries. I think it's a pretty good idea, although it works on the assumption that we are all delicious (sorry, "del.icio.us"... or have they dropped that now?) users. I suppose really you could achieve the same result by providing links on a web page.

The real advantage to sites like delicious is the interactive element, demonstrated by the "networking" task. In doing this, you effectively set up an ever-growing, constantly updating "favourites" folder all related in some way to the topics you chose or the things you like. I can see huge potential, although I wonder if you were to start networking with, say, five or six users or institutions (much like the RSS feeds for blogs) how would you ever keep up-to-date?

http://delicious.com/carl.jones

This is another Web 2.0 technology that has somehow passed me by, but at last I have my own delicious page! Once again I am rather embarrassed to say that I had heard of it... but didn't really know what it was! Social bookmarks. Whoever heard of such a thing?

Well, I like it. I like it a lot. First things first, the site is really easy to use. The addition of the yahoo login made this easy-as-pie (for me and all my fellow Oxford 23 Things participants) and I was adding my own bookmarks within seconds. The design is really lovely and minimal and the features are easy to navigate. Obviously the "notes" and "tags" are optional although I decided to indulge myself, but you could quickly add all your favourtite links or transfer your pre-existing favourites should you so wish.

It was good to be able to go through my Oxford 23 Thingers' shared links so effortlessly and I found a few worthwhile recommendations. The tag feature really comes into its own here and makes casual browsing very straightforward. I can see how this could be useful within an institution (A library profile with useful bookmarks for librarians, for example) or just for fun. Sometimes personal recommendations are better than generic searches through vessels like Google (an old trusted friend, nonetheless). And sometimes you don't know what you’re looking for, do you?

One criticism: tags without commas. That one's there to catch you out. Yes, it gives you instructions and yes, it has an intuitive feature that pre-empts the most popular tags associated with your chosen bookmark, but still... all my tags had a comma after them and I had to go back and edit them out. Silly commas.